It's a question as old as professional blogging itself, and one that tends to hang around the neck of Arianna Huffington's uber blog The Huffington Post in particular: Should bloggers work for free?
Since HuffPo, which "employs" some 3,000 bloggers to generate its daily content-- almost all of them unpaid-- cashed a $315 million check from AOL last month, the issue of due diligence to the low men and women on the totem pole has grown even more crystallized. Finally, a new survey U.C. Santa Barbara and The Media Industries Project aims to get the opinions of the Post staff on the record.
The unauthorized survey is currently ongoing and will ask as many Huffington Post bloggers as are willing to talk questions such as: "How would you compare the conditions at the Huffington Post to other sites you have blogged for?" and "Do you feel you should receive part of the $315 million AOL used to purchase the Huffington Post?"
Results of the questionaire will be published in April. If you or anyone you know blogs for HuffPo or another established, non-paying outlet, feel free to talk to us in the comments in the meantime.
[Forbes]
